why does ice float on water?

Answer 1

In short, ice float in water because it is less dense.

Density = mass / volume

For a more thorough explanation, one needs to look at what happens when liquid water freezes into solid water (ice).
As the water freezes and becomes a solid, it expands. The volume of a given mass of water becomes larger, therefore the density decreases. Without going into the effects of buoyancy to explain "why" less dense things float (the weight of the fluid they displace is greater than the weight of the object), just accept that they do.

To be even more thorough,
Water expands when it freezes because of the strong, "Hydrogen bonding", intermolecular forces which exist between the water molecules in the liquid/solid.
When water is a liquid, the molecules have much more freedom to move around and rotate any way they please, but when the water freezes into a solid, the molecules have significantly less energy (thus less freedom to move around) and try to take on the most stable/low energy state they can...which happens to be in a lattice structure which has a higher volume that when the molecules were in the liquid state. So it is because of the Hydrogen bonding present between the water molecules that solid ice float in liquid water.

Answer 2

Ice floats on water because its specific gravity is less than that of water. Ice displaces a greater volume than the weight of equivalent weight of water when floating.

Answer 3

Water is unusual in that it expands when it freezes. Expansion leads to a decrease in density, therefore ice is less dense than water. The less dense ice will float on the more dense water.

Answer 4

As there are 3 states of matter- solid, liquid & gas. H2O has also 3 states-- solid form as ice, liquid as water and gas as steam. Normally density varies increasingly from gas to liquid to solid. But that not the case from water to ice. So with buoancy effect ice floats on water.

Answer 5

ice have longer and more spaced out hydrogen bonds in its structure, so it volume increases (it expands) but it still has the same mass, hence the density decreases (by using the formula density=mass/volume) so when it is placed on water which has a higher density than ice, the ice cubes float.

Answer 6

when water freezes, the volume gets bigger(while other chemical things decrease in volume when frozen). Ice has lower density than water.(ice has same number of molecules, same mass with water, but bigger volume than water)

Less dense things float, dense things go down..

Answer 7

ice is less dense than water so it floats in water

Answer 8

i)ice has lesser density than water

ii)ice has many small invisible pores and air occupies it and makes to float

Answer 9

Because ice is less dense than water...each cm^3 weighs less...

Answer 10

because of the extra little air pockets in the ice.